M Carter

Any of those have blue-only? Even though many cameras don't output bars, it's still good to know you're in the ballpark exposure and color-wise. If I'm shooting without a bars-capable camera, I tune it up on my NLE before I head out. (I have a Marshall and it stays accurate for months). Had a friend who really blew it big-time with a monitor that was too bright... reshoot city!

17 hours ago, tupp said:

For years, I've used this plastic, rod-mounted lens shade.

The backlight on those plastic-flag boxes seems like a big problem. Unless you bring a roll of black tape, it's just covered with gaps. With 4x4's you have to really watch backlighting or there's a reflection of a focus gear in your footage. (Though the OP isn't concerned with 4x4's). Those things seems like they're just made to "look like you have a matte box", but I guess the flags may help when there's nothing else?

I got an Indian matte box for my son, 2 stages, one rotates, metal flags, standard rod mount and height adjustable - I still use the thing, for $300 it was pretty surprising. But that's a big leap from twenty bucks...

Just say no to the belts. You can get rings for $15-$20. Get one for every lens.

On June 15, 2016 at 11:38 AM, Jonesy Jones said:

Have you seen this video? (Yes I know that this is the BMCC not BMPC. The point is that the GH4 keys nicely.)

Ummm... the GH4 keyed nicely in comparison to the BMC because it has almost twice the pixels and can hold more detail.

The BMC4K gives you the extra pixels and much more color data.

If you're really set on the GH4, add an NX1 to your tests. Don't know how it keys, but (my opinion) it smokes the Panasonic for IQ. Really remarkable little camera and you also get APS-C vs. the little GH sensor. 

On June 17, 2016 at 2:20 AM, jax_rox said:

Of course, but the assumption was that everything else is equal, in which base higher bit depth and more colour information is going to work in your favour every time. Getting everything else right is very important, but all else being equal the BMPC will still key easier. And as I said above, allows a lot more room for error.

If everything else is 100% perfect, the GH4 will be easy to key as well. But how often is everything else 100% perfect? Realistically, even if the GH4 takes only 5 extra minutes to get the key right because of its bit-depth and lack of colour, multiply that over the amount of videos you're doing and you can end up with hours of unnecessarily wasted time.

I do agree with you that the actual setup is more important than the camera, however. But I don't think the choice is between a BMPC and no lights in a small room versus a GH4 in a large room and a full lighting setup. Though, I could be wrong.

I've pulled hundreds of keys as far back as the Panasonic HMC 150, not even a full-raster chip. But we spent 2 hours just prepping and stretching lighting a very big screen, and lit our subjects properly. (and delivered 720 as i recall). It can be done, but I'd prefer as many pixels and all the bit depth I could get.

I've often found my synch audio on Nikon bodies and the NX1 to be useable in the final edit. 

My chain is (insert really really nice hyper mic here - I use the AT4053) to a Tascam DR60d, which records the audio track and a safety track at minus-6 DB; camera-out to the camera's mic input. And then I really take care to dial in the gains staging - maximum safe gain on the Tascam, set the DSLR input at around 70-80%, and use the camera-out gain on the recorder to get a proper but strong level to the camera.

11 hours ago, DevonChris said:

I think these cameras apply horrendous amounts of compresion to the audio, which is why the internally recorded audio is so bad.

It's not just compression (and there are two kinds of compression, audio limiting and compression of the digital file, such as MP3), it's minimum-circuit to do the job as far as preamps go; and cramming a tiny preamp into a mess of other circuitry isn't optimal. And throw in so-so 1/8" connectors and cables and an unbalanced signal path. But most camera's audio compression (limiting or auto-gain) is horrendous (but can usually be turned off). Digital compression is generally very good.

As I said, if I'm very careful with my synch audio, I can sometimes use it in the edit, but this also depends on the camera. The NX1 can sound punchy and crisp with a good preamp and optimal levels (and a great mic). But once I'm rolling, I can't mess with anything but the input level on the recorder. As interview subjects get comfortable or you get to the meat of the story, they can get louder. So often it's the DR track, with sometimes bits of the safety track cut in.

Synching is a non-issue these days, with FCPX or PluralEyes. And I can manually synch even long multi-cut interviews in a couple minutes, it's not really an issue for many projects. But if you don't want to buy a pro recorder, at least get a pro preamp. And probably the most full-featured value/budget preamp is the one in the DR60D, so you might as well just get a recorder (mine shipped with PluralEyes for free, too). I'm not crazy about the zooms that I've seen, but there may be good ones out there. DR60D's can be found really cheap used, too.

I guess if all you need is web-sized images? If instead of "eliminate the need for a DSLR" your headline was "eliminate the need for a phone camera" it would make more sense (to me anyway).

I've seen this thread about 50 times on various forums. I have a 4K mirrorless camera. I can't use screen grabs for print advertising, I can't color correct them to use for most commercial web work, I can't use all my Speedotron strobes in video, and so on. I can't use a 4K screen grab for a billboard or vehicle wrap gig.

If all you need is a tiny shot that's really compressed and is difficult to correct, to isolate and retouch, and you don't mind shooting video at higher shutter speeds (not knocking ya, if that's "all you need", then I can't see a flaw in your methodology). If someone wants an 11x14 print, you're a little hosed. 

If you're shooting video and someone wants a still, then it's better than nothing (I have one client that still hires me for events, and I continually have to remind them that if they want stills AND video, they need to tell me which one has to actually be good".) 

There's a massive difference between the mindset for shooting stills and shooting video. In stills, you're looking for the perfect moment, and adjusting everything you do to get it captured. In video, you're looking for a temporal sense of what the moment felt like and how it evolved (that's the best i can explain it).

So what gets me is the idea that a need is "eliminated" or a technology is "replaced". It's focusing on hardware and not on the final results that the hardware can deliver.

This shot could have been a video frame, it only used reflectors - but it would not have had the impact it got from methodically thinking through a still setup. And (she's my granddaughter), I really kind of want a 16x20 iris print of this on, like, watercolor paper... 

16 hours ago, Shield3 said:

It's a hell of an assumption to assume I'm "regularly using the USB to charge the camera" based on the fact I stated it stopped working.  I had the camera for a while before I'd even tried it.  I have about 14 batteries and 2 dual chargers and 3 single chargers.  No, only tried it once as I had my phone charging and was curious how long it'd take in a pinch - this lead to noticing the failure, and then seeing if it would still sync on my pc (which it didn't).  I could play devil's advocate and remind you Sony lists in the manual that USB charging is fine but I won't bother.

In fact Rich I only cared that the USB worked in order to get the much needed firmware updates.  But, feel free to continue to make all sorts of assumptions.

 

If a manufacturer makes a product and instructs me in the proper use of the hardware... and then "the internet" finds out that some bit isn't robust and won't work as advertised (IE "even though the manual says to charge via USB, this will trash the camera over time"), I don't think it's user error - it's manufacturing error.

(Even worse is when a manufacturer makes an amazing and robust product and then leaves the market... FU Samsung. What an amazing camera you dropped.)

I resisted leaving FCP 6/7 for some time, but a new mac & more horsepower needs drove me. (I did a lot of research - Premiere was "free" for me since I have the full Cloud subscription). But it was the higher-end tutorials that really convinced me - feature film and trailer editors (speaking to a whole auditorium vs. some guy doing a youtube video). Their support for FCPX was pretty amazing.

On a mac, it's pretty much a no-brainer - 4K on a 1080 timeline was bringing my previous mac to its knees, and it's a seamless experience on X - but it's fine-tuned to work on the hardware. The integration of features and the availability of plugins is great - I used to pretty much automatically run my dialogue through ProTools, but the audio and color tools have even got me doing things I used to run through AE.

I imagine I could have been just as amazed by Premiere, but every time I searched for info on the 2 packages, I found dozens of issues that worried me. 

I'm not an Apple fan boy - I'm pretty infuriated that I need to keep an older machine running in case I need to launch an old FCP7 edit. It's simply jaw-dropping that Apple took a pro app which was an industry mainstay for, what, close to a decade, and gave ZERO path for legacy projects. There should at the very least be an app that doesn't require FCP 6/7 to run, that can parse legacy files and output an XML. Doesn't seem like rocket science.

I get a lot of drone footage from clients. And the drone guys don't seem to have a clue about frame rates and shutter speeds, I get lots of 60p and even, like, 40p stuff. So generally I have to retime it all. I usually use Timewarp in AE and the blur looks pretty legit; but these are aerial landscapes and so on. If you really examine the blur from Timewarp, you can see it's more of a "replicated pixels" thing than a true blur, but I doubt the average viewer would notice. And it does apply blur naturally, not just globally. Really takes the drone stuff to a higher level and allows me to retime and even do keyframed retiming. (In AE, you really have to remember to label the frame rate on the raw footage before you drop it into the comp - say it's 60p and your comp is 24p. Make sure you check the footage info - like, shift-command G or similar - and enter the framerate of 60p before you drop in the comp, or you'll get flicker.)

If you're doing important scenes and shooting very crisp for keying or stabilizing, I'd say, shoot a take at the correct speed and decide which works best.

I never shoot "wrong" shutter speed for stabilizing though - as long as I get decent marks in the frame, the software is moving the whole frame, motion blurs and all - the only reason I could see to shoot at a higher shutter speed would be if tracking marks were getting blurred. 

I think if you want to edit 4K raw at 25p with no rendering... man, you're gonna need SSDs in a RAID with a fast interface... if that will even do it.

I've got the newest Mac Pro cylinder - I get read/write speeds to the internal SSD of about 700-1000 MB/s; on a hardware RAID 0 with 2x 7000RPM spinning disks via Thunderbolt 2, I get 250-280 MB/s - that might be the same with thunderbolt 1 - it may be the best 2 spinning drives can do. I get just shy of the RAID speeds on a single SSD via USB 3. 

I'd ask at the Creative Cow forums - there are a lot more guys who do PCs builds and networking for big production houses there.

On June 6, 2016 at 3:12 PM, Dan Wake said:

how many hours of footage can I put into a 8TB HDD (mechanical, for example western digital black)? I wish to build a 8TB RAID 5 NAS.  I opened my mind about this problem I can't go far with SSD storage.

Depends on the footage - SD interlaced? 4K? Raw? Most manufacturers list average file sizes or card capacities in their owners manuals. There's more than one kind of "footage". 

(Whether a spinning disk or an SSD, 8TB is 8 TB - formatting the drive will take some space though).

7 hours ago, Dan Wake said:

guys which is it the max speed that you can reach with classic HDD (no SSD) in raid?

 thx

Again - how many drives in the array, and what flavor of RAID (0, 1, etc)? What spindle speed (RPM)? What size drives and how many? What's the buss (internal, firewire, USB 2 or 3, Thunderbolt 1 or 2?) and what else is on it? Soft or hard RAID? Manufacturer's claimed speeds or real-world tested speeds?

I think you need to read up a bit more on these technologies - they're not as general as you think. Though you should quickly be able to find some general benchmark numbers.

There's way more to this than the drive brand. How is it connected? An SSD in a $15 USB 3.0 enclosure is pretty dang fast on my cylinder Mac Pro, unimpressive on my tower (which is USB 2). 

You also have to research what the software wants - Adobe's techs recommend the following to maximize After Effects, for instance (AE is where I personally need speed) - 

• Application and system files on your boot drive;
• Scratch disk on a separate and very fast drive (internal SSD on PCI for instance);
• Footage on a very fast drive (external RAID 0 for instance on a fast buss like Tbolt2 - but then, spinning-drive raid may not need TB2 while an SSD raid might use the extra speed - but enough SSD raid space for three or 4 4K projects in production at any given time, and the associated graphics and audio and so on may be wildly expensive);
• Graphic card that works with AE;
• Fastest processor you can get.
• Two of their techs specifically told me that even 12-16GB of RAM was fine for that time, do the drives and graphic card first.

So there's three separate drives/busses (for AE anyway) - and the scratch drive is really where max speed is needed. And I generally have anywhere from one to three terrabytes of active work (not completed and ready to archive) at any given time, so a spinning drive raid (and a big disk to back it up on at night) is the most cost-effective thing for me.

FCPX is crazy-efficient on a mac system - even on a 2009 Mac Pro it'll edit 4K smoothly with an internal spinning raid, on my newer cylinder I can edit files that are on a networked raid (gigabit, but that's gotten stupid cheap now, $15 for a switch). Resolve is another story, and if you can't afford a mega system you may have to work at proxy resolutions and so on.

You really need to figure out where you need speed, research the best solutions for each software, figure out where the best value is if you can't afford the best, and THEN figure out what configuration works best for, say Resolve and Premiere (and also any 3D or effects software you might use regularly).

On June 4, 2016 at 3:27 PM, Davey said:

Brilliant post - learnt more in five minutes than in a lifetime.

Thanks - I'm not a videographer or a photographer - I'm a marketer who can shoot and edit. The three things that have kept me self employed for two decades:

Think like a marketer;

Be a partner, not a provider;

Don't be a dick. 

(That last one - many times my clients have said "you're so easy to work with, we can drive you nuts with changes and edits that are our stupid fault and you fix it fast with a smile, it's always a pleasure to have you on the team" and so on). When I worked for big retail and planned a shoot, my first criteria in booking the team was "people I really loved spending a day with". Yeah, they were great at what they did, from shooters to makeup to models to stylists and scouts - and I always made sure the day would make great shots but that it would also be a really, really enjoyable day (or days or week). I had no space for catty models or shooters who treated me like a king but dissed their assistants. I think it's massively underrated to have your emotional shit together in business. It can be what tips the scales for someone deciding on suppliers. It can be what keeps the same clients for years or decades. I once mentioned to a client that I had just gotten stiffed by a new client who went under and left me holding a huge lab and printing bill - the guy excused himself and came back with a big check and said "I know we'll do this much business this year, just give me a credit for it". I'm not a perfect human being, but man, I appreciate the people that keep me working and I treat them that way. If anyone is the kind of person that keeps losing friends and lives with all kinds of personal upheaval, loses clients (and friends) over stupid things - step back and suss that stuff out!

So you've settled on what the product "really is". Now get creative.

What if we're in tight on a beautiful girl and a handsome guy, candles and a bottle of wine in the frame. She's in tears, talking about some unspecified, terrible relationship - "it was so unfair… just no respect for me… I wasted so much time… I just wanted to be treated FAIRLY and HONESTLY" **sob**" -- the guy is nodding and gently says "That's all over now. You've got me". Pull back and the wine and candles are on the counter of the tire shop, the guy is wearing the uniform, they've been talking over the counter. He adds "So, let's show you some tires" and she's instantly in normal-transaction-consumer state, "What do you suggest that's affordable..." - and titles, bang, bang, bang - HONEST SERICE - BEST PRICES - FRIENDLIEST SERVICE… then back to the girl looking at a tire on display (or installed on her car) going "Ohhhhh" like it's a new boyfriend.

Sure, imperfect but that was 15 seconds of thought (how does the pull-out make totally clear she was talking about her previous tire buying experience? Can that scenario even work? Does he say something more like "we never treat customers like that"?? It fails if we don't think "Oh, she was talking about buying tires, not some other guy, AND SHE'S RIGHT, it is that bad!")… make the viewer think they're seeing something else entirely, surprise them and add some drama - then humor - to a really dull product? I'd at least take a shot along those lines, regardless of what actually goes on in the spot.

Aaaaaand another 28-70 Nikkor user. Since shooting 4K, it's on the camera maybe 80% of the time. Shooting interviews a bit wider now for reframing. But I shoot 1080 with it a lot as well. The 28 end is really good looking for a zoom that wide, no visible distortion for usual shooting situations. At 60-70 you can get a decent soft BG up to F4 or so, depending upon the setting. (I'm not a fan of "get the BG as mushy as you can", and I don't like the "nose-in-focus/ears soft" full-frame look, I generally shoot people from F4 - 5.6). 

I'd skip the F3.5 and non-constant zooms unless you really love the image. 2.8 can be pretty handy sometimes.

Really beautiful lens (I prefer the 85mm 1.8 Nikkor on people but for interviews, space can be a huge issue and often in an office environment, there's only one place to stick the camera). If you hunt around you might find one with a squeaky or dead focus motor, which should knock hundreds off the price.

You're approaching this the wrong way. It doesn't matter what product or what media. The question is, "what are you really selling?".

BMW doesn't sell cars - they sell status and they sell based on the consumer belief that owning a BMW will make everyone think they're wealthy, classy, demanding only the best, and so on.

Tires are a practical item that most everyone needs, or they're a desirable performance item for a niche market. They're expensive ($700 next week for my vehicle, damn it!) and a hassle to purchase and take care of. They're something you forget how much you rely on until you have a problem with them. They can be the difference between life and death. 

The fact you've said nothing about the business - what's their market position, who is their market, why should a consumer choose them over the competition - makes me think you're approaching this as a creative project and not a marketing project. That's great, but you need to deliver a product that meets the business goals of the owner. Do they want attention, do they want to seem cooler, do they want their market to realize something about them that isn't apparent (better price, good service, fastest installation)? 

A tire shop ad can range from the owner in his terrible suit shouting "CHEAPEST TIRES IN TOWN" with bad interlaced footage of the shop, up to the very best commercials from Michelin or Pirelli and so on. But this guy is a dealer, not a manufacturer - straight-out marketing suggests you get across the reasons a consumer should consider them over their car dealer or a big chain store (could be done with humor or action or any of a dozen directions). I'd resist the knee-jerk reaction to sell tires - Michelin sells tires - what does a local business actually sell to their market? A market that's about to purchase tires and deciding where to go for pricing and service? This can still be creative as hell, it can be viral, etc. But you probably don't need to sell the product itself.

Remember the ad for some local gym? A buff girl is walking around in her panties and approaches a bowl of nuts. She sticks a nut between her butt cheeks and we hear a CRACK - the's so tough, she can shell nuts with her ass. The camera pans to her gym bag, which has the logo of the gym on it. Not a single word spoken. That's pretty damn creative, legitimately funny (and went viral and was shared, like, 10 million times). They didn't talk about their pricing or classes or schedule or locations, but got massive attention. One actress in one location, too. 

Step back and think about the market and what the business wants to achieve.

The NX1 is really nice if you give it enough light. Get up in the 800-2000 range and things get mushy (haven't done a bunch of specific tests though). At very low ISOs it's really very crisp. Good budget alternative, since you can stick many different lenses on the NX with its tiny flange distance. 

I shoot some music videos at 30p, with the synch music sped up to match, and edit at 24p. It gives everything a little more "weighty" feel. Moving hair gets a little more float to it. I also tend to do steadicam shots at 30p if there's no dialogue - not every single one but if the feel of the edit calls for it, it makes things feel a little more "floaty" or adds some gravitas or emotion. Subtle but there. You can always speed it up since you're throwing frames away vs. creating from scratch.

Timewarp and Twixtor - when they work they work, and when they can't do it, it hurts. Great slowmo and suddenly someone's hand or hair turns to a deformed alien morph-thing. If you shoot specifically for those plugins, you need fallback just-in-case takes as well. 

I've gotten better results with Timewarp (I don't own twixtor) with 4K footage - more pixels for the software to chew on I suppose - it's all about detail with those. Motion blurs can be a huge problem, too. So figure on more light for those shots and up your shutter speed.

The micro cinema cam does 60p which slows down nicely, you might look into that, especially if you already own a pocket-specific speedbooster.

I haven't read every thread here, but essentially, is it crystal clear that the new firmware was specifically designed to prevent firmware hacks? Or is it incompatible with the current hack and it's start-from-scratch time? Or is getting into the firmware now impossible?

And can I throw in one more rant-ism - what the f*cking F*CK is with all the "unboxing reviews". I really, really don't give a rat's what the corporate packaging department came up with. It's just more clickbait, by people who only now how to open a damn box.

Whhew. I feel much better now.

10 hours ago, JazzBox said:

Thank you all!!

What about capsules for Zoom H5? Are those toys or useful piece of gear?

How close can you get the Zoom with a capsule stuck on it to the actor's voice? I'm not super-familiar with that setup, but I'm thinking it's for ambient sound or recording concerts and such. If you're doing narrative work or interviews, you need a decent mic as close as possible to the subject. And optimally it's a mic that captures as little extraneous sound as possible. A Sure 57 2 feet from the talent is going to trump a zillion-dollar hyper across the room - much less a Rode videomic on the hot shoe. Think about getting a hyper on a stand, or a quality lav on the chest, while you're trying to shoot with a lens long enough for the look you want - usually 5 or 6 feet away for starters. Work backwards from there - what's it take to get up-close audio, with as little ambient sound as possible, into your edit? Not necessarily into your camera, but on your timeline?

There's no super-secret formula you'll find that beats a hyper mic just out of the frame. Plug that mic into a proper recording chain (balanced low impedance cables, decent preamp, decent recording medium). Stage yout gain so you get the max signal to noise with no distortion. Find a way to synch it to the camera (even FCPX has auto-synching built-in, or synch by ear). And it will synch to the built-in mic on about any DSLR - your synch track doesn't need to be amazing. Get a clapboard if you're worried.

That's it. A $1500 Schoeps mic is just icing on the cake. The basics are the basics and they work.

I've got some of those or similar. There's not much to a cheap chinese FF gears, just look for a size that works for you (like that one on the right is pretty gargantuan, but some rigs may need that). Didn't look at the video, but looks like these need a tool to tighten - you'll find you prefer the ones that use a knurled knob (I have both, having to keep the allen wrench close by is a pain). There's someone out there on eBay selling RedRock exact knockoffs, no tools needed, and more compact. But as far as basic functionality, anhy of these chinese rings seem to work fine and way better than those "zip-belt" horrific things.

8 hours ago, IronFilm said:

The 416 is a hypercardiod, and they're comparing the D3 against the 416 as a direct competitor, so maybe don't write it off quite so quickly?

The D3 is an interference tube "shotgun" mic, regardless of what they compare it to - Aputure calls it a shotgun as well. Where did I "write it off"? My comment is that there's been a lot of fairly affordable (even cheap as hell) shotguns out there, but it's interesting we're finally seeing hypers get democratized.

ADK A-51s are under $200 and a pretty spectacular value, so I won't write it off til I hear it.

4 hours ago, JazzBox said:

Thank you all!! 

I know the Samson C02, the AKG Perception 170, the Beheringer C2 etc... they are all perfect for live instruments micing, for indoor shooting, but outdoor they become quickly very difficult to use. 
I'd like to find some "video" mic so I can rely on it when I shoot indoor and outdoor.

The Rode NTG are bad?

Thank you all!

There's no "video mic" that has some magic wind-proof power - you need wind protection. A blimp has an internal shockmount, a shell that has some wind cut properties, and (the Rode for instance) comes with a "dead cat" - the fur cover. None of that will allow you to shoot in wind over 20mph or so with total quiet, but they go a long way. 

My son does some on-set audio - his blimp doesn't have a removable front cell. The Rode does - I use that indoors if there's AC we just can't shut off (big office buildings) and remove just the front - that does seem to help deaden room noise even more. In fact, I never take my mic out of the blimp and transport it that way (I have sort of a foam rubber "donut" that I stick in there to keep the shock mount cords from having to "work" in storage).

Another good trick - if your blimp is designed for shotguns, it may be hard to get a hyper all the way up to the front - so essentially you're sacrificing 2 or 3 inches of mic placement. Get one of the XLR barrel on-off switches, tape the switch to "on" and plug it onto your mic and stick the whole thing in the shockmount - basically makes your mic about 3 or 4" longer.

The Rode NTG 2 and 3 are shotgun mics. Unless all you do is shoot outdoors, I'd start with a hyper. Shotguns can really pick up a lot of room reverberance and noise - their design makes the pickup from the rear of the mic very strong, it's a problem inherent to the interference design that makes the front more directional.

I bought an "indian" one when DSLRs started really taking off, figured I'd eventually replace it. Still use it every week though, guess I got lucky -it was like $250.

Look for:

At least two stages & at least one rotates;

Height adjustable;

Detachable flags that don't have gaps between the flags and the main hood assembly - and hopefully the front flag stays put when used without the side flags;

A swing-away front is really handy;

If you use different sized lenses (DSLR style shooting), I found it's easier to just get screw-on rubber lens hoods to seal the lenses against the matte box opening vs. nun's knickers or swapping out foam donuts. If you use cinema lenses it's not such an issue. (You usually need something though - the first time you get back to your NLE and see the reflections of focus gears in your ND - yeah, that bites!)

The Samson is interesting - there's just a flood of chinese large and small di. condensers out there (with companies like ADK finding decent capsules and doing their own electronics and housings - I own an Area 51 and it's an impressive mic for the dollars) but I haven't seen a hyper myslef, especially this cheap. They're not reviewed that well by the studio guys using them on acoustic guitars and as drum overheads, but you never know...

The Aputure D3 is a shotgun, and there are plenty of affordable shotgun choices out there already.